A computer service associated with an electronic catalog of items enables
users to explicitly elect to expose their respective purchase histories
to other users. When a first user accesses an item in the electronic
catalog, the service may notify the first user of one or more other users
who have purchased the item. These other users may, for example, be
contacts of the first user, or members of a community of which the first
user is a member. The service may also facilitate communications between
these users.